Modern snakes evolved from a few survivors of dino-killing asteroid

The extinction of their competitors allowed snakes to move into new niches and diversify enormously (Credit: Joschua Knüppe). Research from the Milner Centre for Evolution suggests modern snakes evolved from a handful of ancestors that survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. Last updated on Tuesday 14 September 2021 - A new study suggests that all living snakes evolved from a handful of species that survived the giant asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs and most other living things at the end of the Cretaceous. The authors say that this devastating extinction event was a form of 'creative destruction' that allowed snakes to diversify into new niches, previously filled by their competitors. The research, published , shows that snakes, today including almost 4000 living species, started to diversify around the time that an extra-terrestrial impact wiped out the dinosaurs and most other species on the planet. The study, led by scientists at the University of Bath and including collaborators from Bristol, Cambridge and Germany, used fossils and analysed genetic differences between modern snakes to reconstruct snake evolution. The analyses helped to pinpoint the time that modern snakes evolved.